India’s security agencies have gathered evidence to prove that underworld don Dawood Ibrahim lives in Pakistan, a report in the Hindustan Times newspaper said. If the National Security Advisers of India and Pakistan meet as scheduled on Monday, New Delhi will furnish fresh evidence of terror mastermind Dawood Ibrahim’s presence in Karachi, a fact that Pakistan has denied for over two decades.
Dawood Ibrahim is wanted in India for the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in which 257 people were killed nearly a thousand injured. He is also accused of masterminding other terror attacks and of money laundering and extortion.
The Hindustan Times on Saturday published a recent picture of Dawood Ibrahim, 59, and reported that Indian intelligence agencies have documentary evidence that the terrorist, along with his wife and children, has been living in Karachi’s Clifton Road, an upscale neighbourhood.
While India has always maintained that Dawood lives in the Pakistani port city, new evidence reportedly includes a telephone bill issued in April in the name of his wife, which has their home address, and a copy of his Pakistani passport issued in 1996.
Indian investigators are also said to have documents that prove Dawood’s family and associates like Jawaid Chotani – also involved in the 1993 blasts – have travelled frequently to Dubai.
Dawood’s wife and daughter flew to Dubai in January this year and his son Moeen, daughter-in-law and grandchildren went there as recently as in March and May, the documents reveal.
India intends to confront Pakistan’s National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz with the documents and new facts. Mr Aziz is to arrive on Sunday for talks with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval.
The talks are precariously poised with Pakistan refusing to cancel a meeting with Kashmiri separatists in Delhi and insisting that Kashmir will be part of its agenda. India says that any meeting with separatists before or after the talks is unacceptable and amounts to Pakistan crossing a well-defined red line.
There is an Interpol red corner notice against Dawood Ibrahim for his role in the 1993 blasts. In 2003, the US designated him as a global terrorist with links to terror groups al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba.